| |
| CALL no faith false which e’er has brought | |
| Relief to any laden life, | |
| Cessation from the pain of thought, | |
| Refreshment ’mid the dust of strife. | |
| |
| What though the thing to which they kneel | 5 |
| Be dumb and dead as wood or stone, | |
| Though all the rapture which they feel | |
| Be for the worshipper alone? | |
| |
| They worship, they adore, they bow | |
| Before the Ineffable Source, before | 10 |
| The hidden soul of good; and thou, | |
| With all thy wit, what dost thou more? | |
| |
| Kneel with them, only if there come | |
| Some zealot or sleek knave who strives | |
| To mar the sanctities of home, | 15 |
| To tear asunder wedded lives; | |
| |
| Or who by subtle wile has sought, | |
| By shameful promise, shameful threat, | |
| To turn the thinker from his thought, | |
| To efface the eternal landmarks set | 20 |
| |
| ’Twixt faith and knowledge; hold not peace | |
| For such, but like a sudden flame | |
| Let loose thy scorn on him, nor cease | |
| Till thou hast cover’d him with shame. | |
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